Lawyer journeys to isolated country estate to draw up a will, only to find the person in question has been dead for nearly a year, and the house is haunted by the 16th century ghosts of plague victims.
Nicely done tale of revenge from beyond the grave, especially in its correct Italian version, where one can appreciate the atmospherics without the rather flat English dubbing, as well as Carlo DiPalma's fine B&W photography. Don't let the silly US title keep you from watching this - it is a film well worth seeing.
Even in its stilted American version, the film is atmospheric and creepy. Sam Raimi must have taken note, as many scenes in The Evil Dead are obviously influenced by it (waking the dead by listening to an old recording, subjective shots of undead attackers, malevolent forests, etc). One grisly death by acid seems to have been remembered/homaged by Lucio Fulci in The Beyond, as well.
IMDb and Wikpedia state Pupilo allowed Ralph Zucker to take credit for direction. It appears this is an incorrect reading of the Italian credits. They read diretto da Ralph Zucker, literally "direct from" as in "presented by." The last opening credit reads diretta da Frank Merle, literally "directed by Frank Merle." Pupilo actually gave directorial credit to producer Francesco Merli under his anglicized pseudonym.
Full credit to Roberto Curti's excellent book, Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969, for unraveling the Anglicizations of actors' names that IMDb hasn't done.
-Dave W.
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